Ain't I A Woman, Too? - Blindspots, Gender Loopholes, and Institutional Power

One of the most insidious tricks of the patriarchy is the endowment of power bestowed on the highest rings of subordinate powers.  This #metoo/#timesup movement has shaken up a lot in the last year, that needed to be loosened from recesses of our collective minds, but, there is tricky ground left to be dug up. 

The  maddening irony of watching numerous men lose their titles and livelihoods in the months past, in both private and public sectors, without due process of investigation or criminal proceedings - while a known, self-admitted sexual predator stands atop us all with title and job in tact, leaves a terrible, acidic burn in the guts of survivors who STILL remain silent.  I don't argue about whether those men deserved to be stripped of their power after being exposed as abusers, but thinking in the longterm, I could not look away from the inherent blindspots and potential consequences of the methods used. 

The trouble about the fervent rash of calling for the heads this way, is that we set a Salem-witch-hunt precedent of how to handle this matter, that would inevitably create the potential pendulum revenge swing-back that would possibly hurt victims even more in the long run.  And before you come for me, understand I'm taking about employing systems of justice for all, that ensures they keep working for our specific concerns, because that is how, checks, balances, and the law...should work, granted, in an ideal world.  Further, I wondered, in such a climate where we were not leaning on such protocols, who else could take advantage of it, because as much good as this has done for survivors to see power stripped from those men who abused it, it unavoidably would be exploited for other power game purposes too, by both men and women.  It could become a tool used for activities unintended. 

Now some call for and praise relief for that same unused due process to be applied to Kavanaugh, a man whose rulings, if he gets the job (after years of successive promotions in the judicial system) will MAKE laws and role back civil rights rulings we need to remain an evolving democracy, long after sex-predator in chief is gone. We didn't call for such investigations in many instances before, so how do we think this will go over now?!  There is a potential backlash for that inconsistency.  Also, behind, beside, or in font of each of any of these men, is often a woman. There were women who stood by Cosby, one of the few who has actually been investigated, charged, tried, and sentenced because of his accusers stepping forward.  But even if an FBI investigation is granted because of Dr. Ford's brave accounting at the hearings, are we still looking at the full here? Are we able to hold the whole truth?  I don't think so, because we still have many people out there who are not being called out, and who continue to question survivors and choose 'sides' according to political belief and not objective, observable, investigated inconsistencies!  And most importantly missing is the questions, "What if you, what if I, what if we, remain silent because it is another woman whose power would be at risk or negatively unleashed for the telling? What if it is a woman who abused, or allowed, condoned, or repressed the cry of abuse? And are men or boys included in this cry?"

The #metoo movement, for all of the very necessary empowerment it has created for us, worries me deeply and personally in that it is mainly the bellow of taking down men (mostly white men), but is still yet to make space for survivors who stand silent under the boot of a woman.